Type and Production

Chapter 22, Questions 1, 2, 4

1. The typography is very discouraging. Repetition and capitalization together make it seem that the sign is shouting. Also, “hearing” is the most important word, but it is not horizontal, which makes it the most unintuitive to read. Finally, there is no semantic reason for “aids” to be repeated. The sign seems to be encouraging AIDS. I would suggest capitalizing no more than the first letter of each word and making “hearing” horizontal. Also, not all of the letters need to be outlined in white. That tactic should be saved for the information that needs the most pop.

2. This text comes from a motivational placard. Times New Roman takes up the least space, and the rest are comparable in size, although Comic Sans appears bolder than the others. Microsoft San Serif portrays the message best, because it looks clean and confident. Times New Roman looks boring, juvenile Comic Sans seems condescending, and SimHe suggests that the speaker is a computer or robot, neither of which are reassuring creatures.

4. My textbook is a paperback book, bound with perfect binding. Most of my books are the same, since my classes typically require several novels or historical collections. Even most of my textbooks are paperbacks with perfect binding.

Editing Illustrations

Chapter 19, Questions 1-3, 6

1. After rading this brochure, readers should trust that the Society is a worthwhile cause and believe that the Society is taking responsible steps to increase its funds. I would suggest separating the three sections into their own column, uniform alignment of titles and chart components, illustration titles, justified text, and including the Society’s full name upon first mention.

2. To clearly and trustworthily communicate with users of varying literacy levels, HealthCare.gov uses a large font and a simple color palette of blue and grayscale that does not distract from the text. Also, there is a tab labeled “Get Insurance” at the center of the top, which provides the most direct answer (“Open enrollement is over”) to the most basic and common user question.

3. The first image that appeared on Clemson.edu’s slider was a photo of the New York City skyline. It accompanied an article entitled “Clemson Marketing Students Take on NYC.” It is jarring to see a photo that is so clearly not representative of the city of Clemson, or of any city in South Carolina for that matter. The first impression of Clemson feels misleading.

6. While the visual below was not actually included in an instruction manual, it serves as a good reminder to check over visuals with the utmost care. At least the title is accurate and the parts are labeled clearly.

Grammar and Usage

Grammar and Usage

Chapter 10, Questions 1-8

1. a. Transitive verb, direct object

b. She laid the results of the MRI down.

c. Transitive verb, direct object

d. Transitive verb

e. Intransitive verb,

f. Transitive verb, direct object

g. Intransitive verb, subject complement, adjective

h. To be verb, subject complement, adjective

2. b. Transitive verb, but in a. it’s an intransitive verb. An editor could turn the sentence into a question: a) What did she graduate from? b) What did she graduate? B is the correct choice.

3. a. take – present, hope – present, is – present, had – past, were – past, hope – present, will follow – future

b. We take great pleasure in welcoming you to our staff. We hope that our relationship is one of mutual understanding and support. The owners have many years of experience in the operation of successful and profitable businesses. We were fortunate in the past with our choices for our staff, and we sincerely hope that you will follow this path.

4a. subject - condition, verb - are, complement – good

            The overall condition of the facilities is good to very good.

b. subject – resources, verb - dedicated

The resources dedicated to repair are minimal.

c. subject - disease, verb – are, complement – treated

            A dynamic bone disease in patients is tread by decreasing or eliminating calcium-based phosphate binders.

d. subject – range, verb – are

            A wide range of noninvasive treatments are available to patients.

e. subject – shipment,

            Shipments of factory-sealed cartons from our warehouse are made in the cheapest and fastest way.

5. a. The licensing can be determined pursuant to my institution’s policies and procedures on royalty income.

b. The field offers little research investigating the process of creating valid and reliable assessment instruments, despite the presumable acceptance of their pedagogical value.

c. Purchasing a Research MiniCycler and an ultra-pure injection-quality RO water system can reduce the cost of production.

d. the internship would provide me with an opportunity to work with technical documents outside my familiar “comfort zone” of technical manual, as a Principal Technical Editor/Writer for Alpha Communications.

e. Lead-free gasoline does not release harmful lead oxides and lead chlorides and bromides into the atmosphere, as is the case with leaded (regular) gasoline.

6. A dangling modifier is an entire phrase at the beginning or end of a sentence, while a misplaced modifier is often incorrectly directly preceding the subject.

a. Smoke only in the break room.

b. Only safety goggles with indirect vents and anti-fog lenses are allowed.

c. Almost every experiment, nearly 90 percent, failed.

7. a. When staff members need to trander material to another lav under the Uniform Biological Materials Transfer Agreement, they should contact the Lab Supervisor to ensure that proper transfer procedure is followed.

b. If the meaintenance technician needs to replace the lliquid filtration system, he or she must inform the staff.

c. He and I will conduct a workshop on investments.

8. a. The subject is not capable of being an active agent.

b. The adverb hopefully can be used as a replacement for “it is hoped” if it is also applicable if it describes how the hoping was being done. Here, it would be a matter of usage rather than grammar.

“The reason is because…” seems grammatically incorrect because “is” is a linking verb, and “because” is not a verb.  

Organization: The Architecture of Information

Chapter 17, Questions 4-6 and website analysis

4. The two phases in this example are not parallel because Phase 1 is in paragraph format, while Phase 2 is broken up into three sentences. Phase 2 includes the cost last instead of time. If those items were reversed, then the phrases would be parallel.

Revised order:

Phase 1: 2, 4, 3, 5

Phase 2: 6, 7, 8

Some other options for Table 1 and 2 might be to switch the vertical and horizontal labels. The total should be more visible and easy to identify at the bottom of each.

5. If readers are first time users in the library, then this is not following the "readers needs rule." Things may be illogically out of order, and do not make the process quicker and more efficient. Patterns that might work: content based order. It may work well if readers are experienced users. 

Most important things: Reserve materials, book returns, computer study areas, hours of the main library, borrowing books, library cards, etc.

Not so important: water fountains and stairs, lounge areas.

6. The Amazon seller’s FAQ page is organized with the customer in mind. The questions are grouped together in response to potential user questions. The search bar is easy to find.

FAQ page: https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200365260

Website Organization Assignment Memo

By: Alyssa Glazener and Marissa Kozma

Overall, it is apparent that the website is designed to showcase the diverse range of projects in the Center for Advanced Visual Studies and be visually creative, however, our first impression was that the website is lacking in style consistency, and that certain elements of it may be confusing to potential viewers attempting to quickly locate information.

It is important to balance creatively displaying multiple artworks with the users need for organization. It needs to be clear where each section of information is located, so that the user knows how to find it. Since this webpage may most likely be used by students of MIT Design and the rest of the MIT community whose academic interests intersect with art, information about upcoming events and current projects that might be of academic interest to them should be easy to find. The intended purpose of this website is to showcase the diverse art projects, and the website should be reflective of this on the homepage, which is momentarily mostly white space.

Currently, the website attempts to organize by matching structure to meaning and grouping related topics. The homepage connects to information by clicking on different artworks, however, it’s not organized by importance or has any sort of consistency in structure (such as being arranged from general to specific). On a macro level, while it is great that the user can tell that there is a broad range of projects, it is very difficult for the user to find the content he or she is looking for and the website does not anticipate reader’s needs. It is struggle to find all available information on the website due to small links and confusing typefaces. While information seems to be grouped according to common topics, the headings and subheadings are incoherent. The information on the links is at times sporadic, and the information does not seem to be currently updated. The visuals and text are inconsistent and scattered across too much white space. On a micro level, here are some suggestions:we would suggest shrinking the current visual and adding tabs to the left hand side or beneath it. Headings and subheadings should be much bigger, and we suggest getting rid of the lined background because it does not follow the rule of thirds. The animated visuals, while interesting, are a little distracting and we suggest limiting the amount of them used on the homepage. A better use of white space would be to display pictures and headlines that are bold and eye-catching. More color in addition to the bright blue would be more appealing to the eye and would better grab viewers’ attention. The informative and introductory paragraph at the front should be much bigger, and we suggest using a different font for the quote as well. The IAP Center Sponge visual should be either much bigger or transferred to another link since it is not large enough to be informational.

Some other things to think about changing:

-The title seems to be stuck on every web page. It is on every single thing you click on.

-The webpage does not alter with the change of laptop screen size.

-The graphics, while interesting, are sporadically located and too small to make much significance.

-There are pictures overlapping pictures, which is visual overcrowding.

Overall, while this website has much potential, there are still various design/information errors that must be addressed in order for this information to be effective for viewers.

Copyediting for Consistency

Chapter 8, Questions 2-6

2.  A style sheet is meant to be a quick reference resource for writers and editors for frequent questions, and for when they make similar documents in the future. Style sheets record edits that address a matter of choice, not edits that were simply careless mistakes. However, if any edit is made repeatedly, it is recorded, because the editor is likely to run across that mistake again, and the writer may not realize that they always make that mistake.

3. Features that require a decision about consistency of mechanics: use of hyphens, italicizing or punctuating terms, variation of sentence beginnings, use of transitions. One-time spelling errors and other edits that do not require a decision between viable option will not be included in the style sheet.

4. Boart Longyear’s corporate style guide is 67 pages long. There is more emphasis on visuals and labeling than on mechanics and questions on longer amounts of text.

View the style guide here: http://www.boartlongyear.com/wp-content/uploads/StyleGuide-Finalapp-ready.pdf

5. Clemson has created a Clemson University Editorial Style Guide for Creative Service’s promotional and marketing publications. There is also a guide for their website.

6. View the Chicago Manual of Style’s FAQ page here: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/latest.html